Story time with the Gods Percy Jackson
by Sly Raccoon
Summary: This is about the main characters and the Gods reading the Percy Jackson books. Percy and Annabeth have just fallen into Tartarus so and the rest of the Heroes from HoO wonder what happened to them and end up in the past with the past Gods.
1. The Argo II

Leo, Piper, Jason, Hazel, Frank and Nico all sat around the table on the Argo II not saying anything. They had just watched Annabeth and Percy fall (Likely to their deaths) into Tartarus.  
Nico felt it was his fault. He was down there at the time. He should've had more power over the place; it was linked with the underworld right? He should've helped more. He should've...  
Hazel felt just as guilty. She had been down there. She was supposed to have power over Earth right? She had manipulated earth before, why not now? Some child of Pluto she was...  
Frank was just a miserable. He should've flown down there, turned into something fast and strong. He should've realised faster, maybe he would've gotten down there earlier. He should've...  
Jason was on full self doubt mode. He was supposed to have power over air right? He had manipulated air currents before, why not then? Some child of Jupiter he was...  
Piper was angry at herself. She should've noticed there were webs attached. She should've let Jason take Annabeth up first; she had been injured after all. She should've...  
Leo felt he was blameworthy. He had built ship that had made the cave unstable, or more so. He had practically destroyed their chance of getting out with his ship. Some child of Hephaestus he was...  
"Oh Gods... I can't believe Percy would come and find me after all I put him through." Nico said dropping his head.  
"What do you mean?" Hazel asked.  
"I met Percy three years ago..." He started. Wide eyes met his.  
"That long?" "Why didn't you tell him you knew him at Camp Jupiter?" Frank and Hazel said together.  
"...When he rescued me." More strange looks.  
"He rescued you... and you didn't tell him anything at Camp Jupiter?" Jason said incredulously.  
"That's not even the worst bit. He rescued me and my sister from a... a... monster of some sort. The monster kidnapped Annabeth... And Percy went crazy. They weren't going out back then." He sighed sadly.  
"So kidnapping isn't new to them?" Piper said weakly. Nico realised everyone around the table was genuinely interested. He gave a small laugh.  
"Not even slightly." His smile faded. "After that I pestered him like crazy, I didn't even realise how out of it he was. He and Thalia had a huge fight. She electrocuted him; he dumped a river on her. The usual except for actual anger in their actions." Jason froze.  
"Thalia? I knew they knew each other but... are they that close?" Jason said a pang of jealousy.  
"Oh yeah. They act all... you know but they're like brother and sister." Wrong words. Jason's eyes bulged.  
"Well... more like cousins, because they are cousins." Nico amended quickly. There was an awkward moment of silence.  
"So... what happened next?" Piper asked.  
"Well there was a quest launched to find Artemis, who had also been kidnapped. Unfortunately my sister was on that quest. I knew Percy would follow them. I asked him to keep my sister safe." Everyone froze.  
"You asked him to do what?!" Every person round that table knew it was impossible to be accountable for others when everything that happens is so unpredictable.  
"I know, I know! I was young and I didn't know properly what it was like to be a demigod." He looked so tragic that they let it pass. Hazel's thought lingered though. Not because she blamed him, no. It was more the fact that Percy had suddenly entered their lives and yet it seemed he had always been there. Like with Nico, Hazel felt a connection to him (You know, brother and all) and felt protective of him. But also because he brought her back to life as well as helping her find a home. Percy came along and already knew Nico. He knew his sister, Bianca, who Nico never really told her about. With Jason, he lost a sister as well. Found her and suddenly finds out that Percy is a big part of her life.  
"Bianca died and I blamed Percy completely. He had only promised to try to keep her alive." He looked sad. Everyone around the table understood why he felt so bad, you would after that.  
"I ran away. He figured out I was the son of Hades before I did. He didn't tell on me either. He even rescued me again even though I may have tried to kill him or push him away but he kept me safe as he could." Everyone suddenly felt a lot of awe at Percy. "I think that may be his fatal flaw, loyalty. He would risk the world on saving one friend. And that's still not the worst." Everyone stared at Nico.  
"I'm sure he didn't hold it against you. I mean he did come looking for you." Piper tried.  
"I know." They all understood how that just made it worse.  
"I wish we knew more about them. Most of us here are new at this." Leo said. Everyone turned to Nico.  
"Oh, I don't know, I don't really hang around camp much and..." Suddenly a golden light surrounded them.

When it cleared they were all before the Gods. All twelve Olympians including Hestia.  
"Who. Are. You?" Roared Zeus.  
"Um..." Suddenly another glow of light and there stood Annabeth, Thalia, Rachel, Travis, Conner, Katie, Clarisse and Grover.  
"Nico? Jason? Leo? Piper? Who are those two?" Annabeth asked.  
"You know, when we found- oomph!" Leo started.  
"What's the date Annabeth?" Piper asked.  
"Um... The fourth of January, twenty eleven." She said bewildered.  
"No it isn't!" Said a God. "It's two thousand!"  
"Of course! We're from different times! The Gods the furthest back, then us, then you guys." Annabeth said pointing at the different groups of people.  
"Hermes go fetch Hades..." Zeus said.  
"You're right... Hmm... You're very smart." Athena mused and Annabeth blushed.  
"Why did you _summon_ me?" Hades whined as he appeared with Hermes.  
"Quit your whining and you might find out!" Zeus snapped then turned to the demigods, waved his hand and made chairs appear for them. "Why don't you introduce yourselves."  
"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena." Athena beamed down at her which she returned but it was only a small smile as she didn't have her Seaweed brain back yet.  
"Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares." Ares looked her up and down and decided she was a perfect fit.  
"Grover Underwood, Satyr." Zeus growled suddenly.  
"You let my daughter-" He roared.  
"Calm down dad, I'm here, Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus and Lieutenant of Artemis."  
"But- but-" Zeus stuttered.  
"But I'm a tree? Not anymore." The Romans, Leo and Piper shared a confused look.  
"My sister was a tree?" Jason asked.  
"Sister?!" Sputtered Hades angrily.  
"Yeah, Jason Grace, Son of Jupiter."  
"A ROMAN! With Greeks?" Half the Gods yelled.  
"Yeah, don't worry about that, we don't want to give away the future." It took a while but soon things got settled.  
"Thalia, I already have a Lieutenant, Zoe Nightshade." Artemis interrupted.  
"Yeah well that's a long story."  
"Hey there! I'm Leo, the Amazing and Son of, drum roll please... Hephaestus!" Leo's hair suddenly crackled and burst into flame.  
"Leo your hair is on fire." Piper said in a bored voice while the Gods eyes bulged.  
"Whoops, my bad." He grinned. Piper rolled her eyes.  
"Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite." The goddess in question had just been thinking about the girls strange beauty and now it all made sense.  
"We're Travis..."  
"And Conner Stoll."  
"Sons of Hermes!" They said together. Hermes grinned at them as if he couldn't ask for better kids.  
"Idiots. I'm Katie Gardener, daughter of Demeter." Demeter eyed her.  
"Do you eat cereal?"  
"Yeah, everyday for breakfast! What else would I have?" Demeter eyes turned watery.  
"Oh I couldn't ask for a better daughter!"  
"I'm Nico Di Angelo, Son of Hades." Then all Hades broke loose.  
"You broke the oath!" Zeus roared. "Don't tell me Poseidon is the only one who hasn't broken it!" Poseidon looked away flushed and the Demigods all shared a look.  
"He was born before the oath and kept in a hotel that kept him the same age for seventy years!" Hades growled. "And it was an oath you forced me into and _your_ daughter _and _son are right here!"  
"Um... I'm Hazel Levesque... daughter of Pluto..." Another sharp look at Hades.  
"She died Seventy years ago! I don't really understand..." Hades muttered.  
"It's a long story." Hazel sighed.  
"I'm Frank Zhang, Son of Mars." Ares looked him up and down, good enough he thought.  
"And I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare and the Oracle."  
"New Oracle? It's not a mummy anymore?" Apollo asked. Rachel just shook her head.  
"Good so we have the introductions out of the way... Now why are you here?" Zeus pondered.  
"I thought you summoned us." Annabeth frowned. Another bright light flashed and then there was a box with a note on it.  
**Hey gang! I was eavesdropping in on a few conversations and realised they mostly centred around one thing... or should I say person? Anyway I want you all to read these books, trust me, you should. And people from the future, you're not allowed to spill ANYTHING unless it's been revealed in the book. All the best, you favourite God, APOLLO!  
**"What's the book called?" Piper asked.  
"Um... Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief. Hmm..." Leo frowned as he read it. Poseidon, Annabeth and Grover shared a look. Uh oh...


	2. I accidentally vaporize my maths teacher

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pjo, please continue. **

"Who's reading first?" Artemis asked.  
Annabeth smiled a small smile. "I will." She said. She cleared her throat.  
**I accidentally vaporize my maths teacher.  
**"How do you 'accidentally' vaporize something?" Leo asked.  
"This is Percy we're talking about, anything is possible." Thalia laughed. Jason looked at her and felt a pang of jealousy.  
**Look I didn't want to be a half-blood.  
**There were murmured voices of agreement spattered around the demigods.  
**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is this:  
**"Uh oh Perce is giving advice!" Thalia laughed.  
"Duck!"  
"And cover!" Conner and Travis said.**  
Close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.  
**"So not gonna happen." Annabeth muttered.  
**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.  
**"Or get you turned into a tree." Thalia said bitterly. Annabeth gave her a sympathetic look.  
**If you're a normal kid reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that one of this ever happened.  
But if you recognise yourself in these pages – if you feel something stirring deep inside you – stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they **_**sense it too, and they'll come for you.  
Don't say I didn't warn you.  
**"You didn't-" Conner and Travis started when Annabeth's dagger was suddenly stuck in the bit of sofa between them. They gulped.  
**My name is Percy Jackson.  
**"He knows his name, shocking!" Thalia and Nico said at the same time.  
"Will you shut up!?" Annabeth growled frustrated. Athena raised an eyebrow, why does she care so much?  
**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.  
Am I a troubled kid?  
**"Yes!" Almost every demigod shouted, even Annabeth. The ones who didn't were the ones who came from the Argo II except Nico, who shouted the loudest.  
**Yeah, you could say that.  
**"At least he doesn't try and deny it." Nico laughed.  
**I could start at any point in my short miserable  
**Poseidon winced slightly at that point.  
**life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.  
**"Torture!" Cried Hermes, Apollo, Conner and Travis.  
**I know, it sounds like torture.  
**"Does not!" Athena said Offended.  
**Most Yancy field trips were.  
But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, ****was leading this trip, so I had hopes.  
Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class.  
**"Why does that sound like Chiron?" Apollo asked**.  
**"Yeah I know right!?" Leo said. "I wish I could have a teacher like that!"  
"That's because it is Chiron and Leo you do have a teacher like that!" Piper sadi shaking her head in disbelief.  
"Oh!" Leo and Apollo said togethe**r.  
****He also had this awesome collection of Roman armour and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.  
**"He sleeps in lessons?!" Athena shouted, outraged.**  
I hoped this trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.  
**"Banjax!" Thalia, Nico, Conner and Travis shouted.**  
Boy, was I wrong.  
**"As per usual." Nico smirked**.  
****See, bad things happen to me on field trips.  
**"Bad things happen to you anyway Seaweed Brain." Annabeth sighed**.  
****Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.  
**"This kid sounds awesome!" Hermes said gleefully. "Unfair that he got expelled though, never get caught."  
"First rule!" Travis and Conner recited. "Never get caught!" Hermes smile down at them proudly.**  
****And before that, at my fourth- grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.  
**"Wow! This kid just got cooler!" Apollo said even more gleefully than Hermes."Yours?" He asked Hermes.  
"Nope." He said popping the "P."  
"How do you sort of hit the wrong lever?" Leo asked.  
"When you're Percy that's how." Thalia said and once again Jason felt a stab of jealousy, she knew Percy so well.**  
****And the time before that … Well, you get the idea. This trip I was determined to be good.  
**"No! Don't do that!" Hermes yelled.  
"We want to know more!" Apollo agreed. Artemis rolled her eyes.**  
****All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.  
**"She did what?!" Thalia yelled.  
"Why I'm gonna-" Annabeth threatened.  
"Don't worry guys!" Grover tried to calm them. "It's fine."**  
****Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. ****  
**Grover raised an eyebrow. "Nice Percy."  
**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.  
**Those who knew Grover laughed at that while he blushed.**  
****Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation.  
**"Of course he was." Annabeth sighed. Athena looked at her daughter again, wondering. **  
The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension** **if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.  
**"Haha! I hope something happens!" Hermes and Apollo said thoughtlessly while the demigods all winced knowingly.**  
****"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.  
**"Yes! Please do!" cried Thalia, Annabeth, Travis, Conner, Hermes, Apollo and Ares. Probably the first time all of them had ever agreed on anything.**  
****Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. "That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.  
**"Grover!" Everyone yelled**.  
**"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens." Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.  
**"Probation? Not surprising." Annabeth said.  
"He so should've decked her." Conner said.**  
****In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.  
**"Demigods always get themselves into trouble." Katie sighed.  
"Not as much as Percy though." Rachel countered.**  
****Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.  
**"Actually more about-" Athena started when everyone (except Annabeth) groaned.**  
****He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx**  
"Stupid sphinx," muttered Annabeth.  
**on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, would give me the evil eye.  
****Mrs. Dodds was this math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old.** **She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.  
**"Harley's are awesome." Ares said stupidly**. ****  
She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was the devil spawn.  
**"Nah! That's Nico!" Thalia laughed.  
"Hey! Not true, Pinecone face!" Nico said back.  
"Ohhh! Stealing Percy's insults? You've got such a corpse brain you can't think of your own?" Thalia said getting angry.  
"Actually Air head I was-"  
"Shut both of you!" Annabeth shouted. "I've had enough of you guys fighting! There are way more important things going in without you two slowing things up! Let's just finish these books and get out of here" They both looked down guiltily.**  
**"Sorry Annabeth."  
"What's happening now?" Athena asked.  
"Can't tell you might affect the future."  
**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after school detention for a month.**  
**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grove I didn't think was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."  
**"Way to go Grover." Katie said.  
**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.  
Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"  
It came out louder than I meant it to.  
The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.  
"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"  
My face was totally red. I said, "No sir."  
**"He's only ever polite to Chiron." Rachel sighed**.  
****Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**  
**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"  
**"Not pleasant." Hades wrinkled his nose.  
Hera shivered delicately.**  
****"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.**  
**"And he did this because ..."**  
**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,  
**"God!?" Zeus and Hera said outraged.**  
****And—"**  
**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.  
****"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"  
**"Eeew!" Said the girls. **  
****"Eeew!" Said one of the girls behind me.  
"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."  
**"Did he just sum up the whole war in a few short sentences?" Poseidon said stunned.**  
**"That's Percy." Annabeth said and the others who knew him nodded vigorously.  
"I would've gone into more detail." Ares grumbled.**  
****Some snickers from the group.**  
**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**  
**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"  
**"Ha!" Travis yelled.  
"Busted!" Conner finished. Katie hit them both upside the head.**  
****"Busted," Grover muttered.  
**Travis and Conner shared a weired out look with Grover**. **  
**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.  
**"Ha!" Demeter cried. "Serves her right!"  
**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who every caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.  
**"Those ears have caused us so much trouble." Conner sighed.  
"No they've stopped you from creating trouble." Katie said smugly**. ****  
I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."  
**"Surprise, surprise." Thalia laughed.**  
"I see," Mr Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe and scattered him remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"  
**"Happy?" Frank muttered.  
"Sarcasm probably." Hazel muttered back**.  
****The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.  
**"When are guys not doofuses?" Artemis asked eyeing her brother as he tried to figure out a Chinese finger trap.  
"Here." Frank said. "Look you just..." He said while telling Apollo how to do it.  
**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**  
**I knew what was coming. **  
**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?" **  
**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go―intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.  
****"They have." Athena sighed. **  
**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**  
**"About the Titans?"**  
**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**  
**"Oh."**  
**"What you learn from me," he said," is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**  
"And he got the best, Percy is the best." Annabeth sighed as the others demigods nodded in agreement.  
**I wanted to get**** angry, this guy pushed me so hard.  
**"Yeah and it saved your life!" Clarisse said.**  
****I mean, sure it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armour and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who ever lived, and their mother, and what god the worshipped.****But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I have never made above a C- in my life. No―he didn't want me to be as good he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.  
**"Ha, no one could do that!" Conner yelled.  
"Except maybe Annabeth." Travis finished.  
"Doubtful." Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I'm dyslexic too, brainless."  
"You are?!" Conner asked, shocked.  
"Yes, we all are." She huffed.  
"But you're a genius!" Travis exclaimed. Athena gleamed with pride whereas Annabeth just rolled her eyes.**  
****I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took a long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**  
**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**  
**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**  
**Overhead, a large storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was Global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.  
**"What are you two fighting about now?" Hera asked exasperated.  
They both just shrugged**.  
****Nobody else seemed to notice. Some guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's bag,-  
**"Yours?" Apollo asked Hermes.  
"Gods no!" Hermes seemed appalled by the idea**. ****  
and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't noticing anything.  
**"Of course." Sighed Grover.**  
****Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from ****_that _****school – the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.  
**"Why ere in a school like that Grover?" Clarisse asked.  
"'Cause schools like that is where we find most half-bloods." Grover replied.  
"Hey!" Travis and Conner complained.  
"Don't deny it; you two are so loser freaks." Katie laughed. Travis blushed.**  
****"Detention?" Grover asked.  
"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean – I'm not a genius."  
**"Ain't that the truth!" Nico laughed and high fived Thalia. Hazel and Jason watched them, Hazel smiling, Jason biting his lip. **  
****Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought-  
**"He thinks?!" Thalia whispered so Annabeth wouldn't hear.**  
****he was going to say something deep and philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"  
**"Can I have your apple?!" Piper said incredulously. Suddenly everyone was laughing while Grover blushed. Hazel and Frank who didn't really know Grover tried not to laugh but it was hard. Annabeth was laughing the most along with Thalia so it took a while to get back to the book.  
"Haha, Ok, haha, OK, Ok, uh... Ah here we are."**  
****I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.  
**"Always generous." Thalia sighed and Hazel and Frank nodded; this they did know about Percy. Once again Jason felt a little left out. He and Percy had had a difficult relationship considering they were both leaders, and then to find out he was so close to Jason's long lost sister was hard.**  
****I watched the stream of cabs-  
**Suddenly Annabeth started laughing again.  
"Um... Annabeth? What's so funny?" Thalia asked worried.  
"He watched the _stream _of cabs." Annabeth giggled.  
"Oh! Haha." And then all the demigods were laughing while the gods looked at them confused.**  
****Going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed too.  
**"Aww, little momma's boy!" Ares snarled.  
Hera gave him a sharp look. "What do you mean by that?"  
"Nothing!" He said sliding down in his seat.  
**She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years.  
**Poseidon winced ever so slightly at that.  
Piper raised her eyebrows; she thought she had a record but in comparison to Percy...  
**And I was probably going to get kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand the sad look she'd give me.  
**"What a-" Ares started.  
"A what?" Hera said glaring at him.  
"Nothing!" Ares he said hurriedly.  
"That's right." Hera said smugly. And as much as the demigods hated her, they hated Ares just as much so they laughed. Well, except for Clarisse.  
**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery-  
**A spattering of laughter ensued but Annabeth ploughed on.  
**While he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorised cafe table.  
**"Awesome!" Leo exclaimed. "Like Buford except Buford isn't a cafe table. Maybe if I made a few adjustments..." He trailed off and Annabeth continued reading.  
**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends – I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from tourists – and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.  
**"Deck her now!" Thalia yelled with a cry of agreement from the others.  
"Guys, cool it!" Grover sighed.  
**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth.  
**"Eeew." Aphrodite wrinkled her nose.  
**Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.  
**"Double eeew!" Aphrodite said again.  
"What a weird way to describe somebody." Jason frowned while Leo laughed at the image.  
"Well little bro, Percy is a really, really weird person." Thalia laughed and Jason's frown deepened.  
"Tell me about it!" Nico agreed. Annabeth cleared her throat and they quietened down.  
**I tried to stay cool.  
**"When has he ever kept his cool?" Thalia whispered.  
"When was he ever cool?" Clarisse whispered back.  
**The school counsellor had told me a million times. "Count to ten, get control of your temper."  
But I was so mad my mind went blank.  
**"His mind is always blank." Clarisse muttered to Thalia and Nico and they laughed silently.  
**A wave roared in my ears.  
**Annabeth laughed again.  
"Really, a _wave_?" Rachel laughed.  
The gods frowned, what was with all the water jokes?  
**I don't remember touching her.  
**"Who would want to touch her?" Aphrodite shuddered.  
**But the next thing I knew Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming "Percy pushed me!"  
**Everyone laughed at the mental image.  
**Mrs. Dodds materialised next to us.  
**"Monster for sure." Leo said bitterly.  
**Some kids were whispering-  
**Annabeth stopped.  
"Some kids were whispering what?" Artemis asked.  
"Uh- nothing. Some kids were whispering." Annabeth said. She knew they'd find out soon enough that Percy was the Son of Poseidon but she wanted to postpone it until they knew Percy better.  
"It sounded like there was more." Athena said.  
"Yeah I read it wrong." Annabeth quickly covered.  
"But you don't get things wrong." Conner said.  
Annabeth glared at him. "I'm dyslexic too." The she sighed and turned back to the book.  
**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.  
**"Isn't he always?" Annabeth sighed.  
**As soon as Mrs. Dodds made sure poor little Nancy was okay,  
**"I thought he didn't like Nancy?" Apollo asked, confused.  
"He was being sarcastic." Artemis sighed. "Why couldn't it be a boy?"  
"Oh... Hey! Remember I was born first! I'm older! Why couldn't _you_ be a _boy_?" Apollo replied.  
"Because I got the brains whereas you got the... never mind, I don't know what you got." Artemis countered.  
"Stop it you two." Zeus sighed, he was used to this.  
**Promising to get her a new shirt from the museum gift shop, etc, etc. Mrs Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now honey-"  
"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing textbooks."  
**"No, Percy, No!" Travis moaned.  
"Haven't we taught you anything?" Conner added.  
"You never _guess _your punishment!" Hermes finished.  
**That wasn't the right thing to say.  
**"Ya think!" The three yelled.  
**"Come with me." Mrs Dodds said.  
"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me! **_**I **_**pushed her."  
**"Aww! Grover!" Katie and Rachel squealed. **  
I stared at him stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me.  
**"Thanks Perce." Grover muttered under his breath.  
**Mrs. Dodds scared him to death.  
**"Aww, Grover!" Katie and Rachel squealed again.  
**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.  
"I don't think so Mr Underwood." She said.  
"But-"  
"You- Will- Stay- Here."  
"Grover looked at me desperately.  
"It's Okay, man." I told him. "Thanks for trying."  
**"S'OK Percy." Grover whispered sadly.  
**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds Barked at me. "**_**Now.**_**"  
**"This woman is freaking me out." Frank muttered uneasily, Ares looked at him. How can he be a Son of mine? He gets freaked by some namby- pamby old woman.  
"I know right!" Leo agreed. "With all the 'Honey'ing." Leo and Frank didn't always get on but they agreed on this.  
**Nancy Bobofit smirked.  
**Thalia growled.  
Jason frowned.  
**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.  
**"Bet it's not as good as mine." Ares boasted.  
"No, it's better." Nico shivered.  
"I've had nightmares about that stare." Travis shuddered.  
"Oh the horror of it all!" Conner just had to take it a step further.  
"Yeah, right." Ares gave them his best I'll-kill-you-later stare.  
"Yeah... Sorry dad but Percy's is way better." Clarisse shrugged.  
"It's terrifying." Thalia agreed. "Wait, did you just compliment Percy?"  
"Over your dad?" Annabeth added.  
"Shut up and read."  
"Well that's an oxymoron if ever I heard one." Annabeth smiled.  
"What's an oxymoron?" Conner asked like a child would ask where babies came from.  
"An oxymoron is two opposites put together, here are some you might know: clearly confused, seriously funny-"Athena explained.  
"Tragic comedy" Annabeth added. Athena smiled down at her.  
"So how is 'shut up and read' one?" Travis asked.  
"Because Clarisse said to shut up but how can she read if she is quiet? Two opposites, duh." Katie said hitting them both.  
"Ugh! Too much learning going on, please continue Annabeth." Leo rubbed his head as if it hurt. Annabeth rolled her eyes but continued.  
**I then turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come.  
How did she get there so fast?  
**"Because she's a monster!" Hazel said.  
"Don't follow her!" Said Frank.  
"You guys do know you're talking to a book?" Piper frowned at them worriedly. They blushed and Annabeth continued. **  
I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it.  
**"That kind of makes sense but what a weird analogy." Jason said.  
"Once again Percy and Weird are like best friends." Thalia smiled.  
**The counsellor told me this was part of my ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.  
**"No, you're just hard wired for battle, smack! Wapow!" Leo demonstrated.  
**I wasn't so sure.  
**"Yay!" a general cheer went up.  
"At least his instincts seem in check." Frank Smiled.  
**I went after Mrs. Dodds.  
**"No!" A groan went around the room.  
"You were saying?" Hazel laughed.  
"Maybe, but then again some people's instincts are to face their fears." Clarisse reasoned. Everyone stared at her.  
"What? I'm not defending Prissy but some people's instincts are to face their fears instead of run away." Clarisse defended herself.  
**Half way up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his Novel.  
**"Chiron!" Katie half laughed half groaned.  
**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.  
Okay, I thought.  
**No one said anything; everyone was on the edge of their seats, knowing it was a monster.  
**She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.  
**"Not quite." Grover murmured quietly.  
**But apparently that wasn't the plan.  
**"Knew it." Travis whispered.  
**I followed her deeper into the museum.  
**"Why?" Nico sighed.  
**When I finally caught up with her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.  
**"How ironic, about to face first ancient Greek monster in the ancient Greek section." Conner tried to joke. It fell flat.  
**Except for us, the gallery was empty.  
**"Clever, no wittiness's." Jason said in an undertone but everyone heard.  
**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.  
**"Monster." Rachel muttered.  
**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. **  
**Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverise it...  
**"Wonder why." Piper grumbled.  
**"You've been giving us problems, honey." She said.  
**"That's Prissy." Clarisse mumbled.  
**I did the safest thing.  
**Everyone sighed in relief.  
**I said, "Yes ma'am."  
**"Ugh, can't even do the safest thing right!" Katie muttered.  
**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket.  
**"Leather jackets are awesome." Ares said in the same childish way as before.  
**"Did you really think you could get away with it?"  
The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.  
**"Hello, MONSTER!" Leo jittered.  
**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's gonna hurt me.  
**Everybody winced.  
**I said, "I'll- I'll try harder ma'am."  
Thunder shook the building.  
**Everyone glanced at Zeus.  
**"We're not fools, Percy Jackson." Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess and you will suffer less pain."  
**"Less pain?" Rachel asked weakly.  
"Is it just me or is that kinda stalkerish?" Conner said meekly.  
**I didn't know what she was talking about.  
All I could think of was that the teachers had found my illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.  
**"Loving this kid more and more." Hermes laughed.  
**Or maybe they'd realised I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the internet without ever reading the book and now they were gonna take away my grade.  
**"Me too!" Apollo agreed with Hermes.  
"He has never read Tom Sawyer?" Athena frowned.  
"He has now." Annabeth assured her mother. Athena slid a glance at her, how could she be so sure unless...  
**Or worse they were gonna make me read the book.  
**"They didn't but Annabeth did." Thalia smiled.  
**"Well?" She demanded.  
"Ma'am I don't..."  
"Your time is up." She hissed.  
**A small intake of breath echoed around the room.  
**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human.  
**"No duh!" Clarisse rolled her eyes but hid her face from the others.  
"Is it... A fury?" Poseidon growled.  
Hades knew it was but said nothing.  
**She was a shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws, and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me into ribbons.  
**"It's a FURY!" Shouted Artemis. "His first monster is a Fury?"  
Poseidon didn't say anything but became very pale.  
Even Apollo had a serious face; no way could this kid battle a fury first time especially not 'accidentally.'  
**Then things got even stranger.  
Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.  
**"Good old Chiron!" Travis and Conner yelled.  
**"What ho, Percy!" He shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.  
**"What ho?" Katie asked.  
"A pen?" Athena questioned.  
**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.  
**Everyone sucked in a breath.  
**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear.  
**"Good instincts." Ares approved.  
**I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen any more. It was a sword- Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.  
Mrs. Dodds spun towards me with a murderous look in her eyes.  
**Travis gulped.  
Conner groaned.  
**Me knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.  
**Ares leaned back, annoyed.  
**She snarled. "Die honey!"  
And she flew straight at me.  
Absolute terror ran through my body. I did what came naturally: I swung the sword.  
**"Naturally." Nico agreed in a sarcastically reasonable tone.  
**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss!  
**_"Made of water huh?" Thalia smiled.  
Annabeth managed a weak laugh as did the other demigods.  
"And that is how you 'accidentally' vaporize someone." Nico laughed and everyone joined in.  
**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan.  
**"Huh?" Leo frowned, confused.  
"I guess that's how it looks." Jason mused.  
"People make sand castles on beaches, you know by the ocean." Nico smiled. People gave him a small, pity, smile.  
What is with this? The gods wondered.  
**She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulphur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those glowing red eyes were still watching me.  
**"Eeew." Aphrodite shuddered.  
**I was alone.  
There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.  
Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.  
**"Yeah we get the point Perce." Thalia rolled her eyes.  
**My hands were still trembling.  
**Ares, who had just started leaning forward with new found respect for the kid, leaned back in disgust, though he couldn't entirely blame him. **  
My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.  
**"Oh Percy." Rachel sighed, rolling her eyes.  
**Had I imagined the whole thing?  
**"No!" Chorused the demigods.  
**I went back outside.  
It had started to rain.  
**"Ugh, why is it when things go bad it always starts to rain?" Conner asked. Everyone ignored him.  
**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain,  
**A few giggles.  
**grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."  
**"Who?" Nico asked.  
**I said. "Who?"  
**"No! I'm thinking like the Seaweed brain!" Nico moaned.  
"We're here for you cuz." Thalia patted him on the back.  
"Be warned, he will take over all of you!" Nico said, taking the drama one step further.  
**"Our teacher. Duh!"  
I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.  
She just rolled her eyes and turned away.  
I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.  
He said, "Who?"  
But he paused first and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.  
**"Grover!" Moaned Conner.  
"Have we taught you nothing?" Travis groaned.  
"I should hope not." Grover muttered.  
"Boys, make it that he is a supreme liar!" Hermes cried. "I know you can do it." He smiled at them.  
"Yes dad!" They shouted together, pleased.  
**"Not funny, man." I told him. "This is serious."  
**"Why didn't you guys tell him? He'd seen and fought Mrs – a fury!" Rachel asked.  
"We wanted to wait a while. He was so young." Grover answered.  
"Was." Annabeth sighed.  
"I didn't mean it as if he were dead! I meant- As in- He's older now! And... If he were dead- um- Nico would know!" Grover yelped.  
"Yeah, don't worry, he's fine." Nico confirmed.  
"One, I know what you meant. Two, just because he's not dead doesn't mean he fine. He could be kidnapped and being tor... well, not treated nicely." No one said anything so she carried in reading.  
**Thunder boomed overhead.  
**"We get it, you're angry." Thalia whispered to herself.  
**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.  
I went over to him.  
He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."  
**"See Grover, Chiron can lie!" Conner smirked.  
"Chiron is over a thousand years older than me; he's had more time to practise." Grover retorted.  
"And to think, we mastered the lying game at such young ripe ages." Travis sighed to his brother, who grinned back at him.  
**I handed it over. I hadn't even realised I was still holding it. "Sir." I said. "Where's Mrs. Dodds?"  
He stared at me blankly. "Who?"  
"The other chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, The maths teacher."  
He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned.  
**"You should be taking notes Grover!" Travis smiled evilly.  
"Why?" He moaned.  
"For the test." Conner said mirroring his brother's smile.  
**"Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"  
**"Okay! Finished." Annabeth sighed in relief. "Why couldn't the books be in Greek? So much easier to read." She complained.  
"Aww is little Annie had problems?" Conner said. She glared at him.  
"Just remember I am smarter and deadlier than you." He gulped and she smiled sweetly as she walked towards him. "Oh and Never. Call. Me. Annie." She tugged her dagger out of the sofa and twirled it in her hand. "Okay?"  
"Okay." He said sinking in his chair.


	3. Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death

**Hey guys I had to go over this chapter again to sort out the damn bold bits but yeah. Sorry for the false alarm!**

* * *

**Hey guys, sorry about the last chapter, it wasn't meant to all be in bold but for some reason it was.**

**My mum took my laptop because it was exam week so I haven't been able to do much except for sneaky school time stuff. I also went to Spain, Sorry! Then when I got back my mum took my laptop again because I have to revise for another GCSE (three actually. French, Chemistry and Physics.) She also doesn't approve of me "wasting my time" writing. Basically lots of personal issues.**

* * *

After Annabeth had dealt with Conner she went to go sit down again. Her mind on Percy. It was always on Percy. Now that they were reading the books she remembered how she's treated him and how she'd embarrassed him. Used him. She felt terrible. _Percy. _She sighed.  
"Annabeth?" Thalia asked.  
"Yeah?" Annabeth asked/answered.  
"Travis is reading. Are you listening?" Thalia asked again worried.  
"Yeah, yeah." She nodded at Travis to read.

**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death**

"An old person knitting is creepy." Leo agreed and was greeted by weird looks.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. **

Those who knew him well laughed and rolled their eyes.

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. **

The Stoll's shared a look.  
"No." Katie whispered in their ears.

**The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr – a perky blonde woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip – had been our maths teacher since Christmas.  
Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was a psycho. **

"Well that explains it." Thalia sighed mournfully.  
"Explains what?" Hazel asked.  
"Why he acts crazy! He was treated like he was crazy and now..." She grinned evilly.  
"He's not crazy Thalia." Annabeth muttered. She didn't like talking like this to her best friend but she also didn't like Thalia talking about Percy like that. At least not when Percy wasn't here to defend himself.  
An awkward silence followed until Travis continued.

**It got so I almost believed them – Mrs. Dodds had never existed. **

"Yes she did!" Nico sang.

**Almost **

"Grover! I'd bet." Conner whispered.  
"No way, who would stupid enough to take that bet?!" Travis whispered back.

**But Grover couldn't fool me. **

Conner and Travis smirked at each other.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying. **

"Oh Grover." Thalia sighed with a slight smile.

**Something was going on. Something **_**had**_** happened at the museum. **

"No duh!" Leo laughed. Annabeth frowned at him; Leo didn't even know Percy yet... Unless in the future... New hope sparked in her heart.  
"He can be so thick sometimes!" Hazel laughed.  
"And then he will come out with something smart!" Frank continued.  
"And then freak us all out!" Piper finished laughing.  
"In the future you've met him?!" Annabeth asked her heart beating fast. Those from the future shared a look. Those from the middle past **(If that makes sense...)** watched them their humour gone for the moment. The Gods looked down confused.  
"Can we please continue? I'd like to know what happens." Hestia asked quietly from the hearth. Everyone turned to her just realising she was there.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat. **

All the demigods shuddered. Imagine having a fury as you first monster?

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. **

"Why would the weather affect his mood?" Leo asked. **(A/N what's the difference between effect and affect?) **  
"Maybe because his father is angry, so is the weather and it's affecting him? Making him angry too and considering what's happened so far it's not surprising." Piper whispered to the demigods. Annabeth nodded.

**One night a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. **

Poseidon growled.

**A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. **

Poseidon gripped his seat.

**One of the current events we studied in social studies class was unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year. **

Zeus glared at Poseidon but was ignored.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. **

"Hmm, it seems as if he is reflecting the weather." Athena muttered to herself thinking.

**My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. **

Athena frowned momentarily forgetting the issue of Percy's father.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. **

Those who felt protective of Grover smirked as did Ares.

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.  
Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was so lazy to study for spelling test, I snapped. I called him an old sot. **

Annabeth allowed herself a small smile.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good. **

"It means old drunk." Annabeth laughed. Those from the future looked at her. They hadn't really seen her like this. Even on the Argo II when they had found Percy they had still been too preoccupied to really relax. The other demigods laughed and rolled their eyes. **(A/N when I refer to the demigods it includes Rachel and Grover.) **

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, to make it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.  
Fine, I told myself. Just fine. **

"Oh Percy." Nico smiled.

**I was homesick.  
I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties. **

"I thought he liked his step father." Frank said.  
"This is the old one." Annabeth sighed. "So you do know Percy?" She pinned him with a look.  
"Uh..."  
"Yes we do. We are from Camp Jupiter." Hazel answered for him.  
"And you three?" She asked Leo, Piper and Jason. They looked at each other.  
"Annabeth." Nico said. "We can't reveal too much of the future.  
"Why are you with them Nico? Are you one of the Seven?"  
"No... It's just... Look I can't really tell you much. I'm sorry." He looked pained so Annabeth let it slide realising she wasn't going to get much out of them.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who's been a good friend, **

"Thanks Perce." Grover smiled. Hazel and Frank looked at Grover.  
"Why is a faun there?" Frank asked.  
"SATYR!" Grover bleated.  
"Fauns – Satyrs – have different jobs at Camp Half-blood." Jason explained. They just nodded.

**Even if he was a little strange. **

"Gee thanks Perce." Grover rolled his eyes. Everyone smiled at him.  
"We're all a little strange." Katie said.  
"Although some more than others." Piper said with a pointed look at Leo. He just grinned as if it had been a compliment.

**I was worried how he'd survive next year without me. **

"Not well." Grover sighed referring to his time.

**I'd miss Latin class too – Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.  
As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. **

"Aww. That's sweet." Piper smiled. She received some weird looks. "What? It is!" Aphrodite smiled down at her daughter.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him. **

"Good boy." Athena said. "Trust your instincts."

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated that I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology **_**across my dorm room. Words had swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. **

"I hate dyslexia." Was heard from the demigods.

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, **

"He does now." Annabeth smiled slightly at the memory. Even though at the time it had been terrifying, the quests had been kind of fun. It meant she had gotten to know Percy better. Poseidon frowned slightly at that.

**Or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it. **

"It's not _that _hard." Hazel insisted.  
"Yeah they're pretty easy." Frank agreed.  
"But then again he's _Greek._" Jason said.  
"So am I but I can do it!" Annabeth said.  
"Yeah but you're a genius child of Athena." Thalia said rolling her eyes.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt. **

"Not a pleasant experience." Conner and Travis agreed.  
"Tell me about it." Leo muttered. Living on the streets meant he had been open to the elements, including all kinds of bugs.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson. **_

"No pressure then." Piper murmured.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.  
I'd never asked a teacher for help before. **

"No wonder." Athena muttered.

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat 'F' I was about to score on his exam. **

"Aw Percy wants to impress Chiron." Rachel smiled along with Annabeth, Katie, Hazel, Piper and Thalia.

**I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried. **

They all shared another small smile.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.  
I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... Worried about Percy, sir." **

"Enter eavesdropping Percy." Thalia said.  
"He eavesdrop that much. Only on Titan's or other enemies in his dreams." Annabeth defended.  
"Which is like, every one of his dreams." Nico sighed.  
"His dreams must really suck." Leo said wrinkling his nose. The other nodded to show how much that statement was true.

**I froze.  
I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you not to try listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult. **

"Fair point." Katie admitted.  
"She's agreeing with something ethically wrong, I think you're getting to her Travis." Conner whispered to his brother.

**I inched closer.  
"... Alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school! **_**Now that we know for sure, **_**they **_**know too –"  
"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more." **

"Yeah like that'll ever happen!" Grover scoffed.

"**But he may not have time. The Summer Solstice deadline –"  
"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can." **

"He never got rid of his ignorance." Rachel laughed quietly.  
"Especially when it came to girls." Annabeth agreed. Now everyone who knew him well laughed.

"**Sir he **_**saw **_**her..."  
"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."  
"Sir, I... I can't fail my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."  
"You haven't failed, Grover." Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's worry about keeping Percy alive until next autumn –"  
The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud. **

"Percy!" Travis and Conner groaned shaking their heads. Almost everyone else sighed in exasperation.  
"Cut him some slack! He just heard someone talking about how they had to keep him _alive!" _Hazel defended him. Annabeth shot her a friendly smile which she returned.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.  
My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed away. **

"He's finally doing something right!" Travis said.  
"Clean evidence, get out of sight." Conner agreed.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Mr. Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller that my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow. **

"Why is Chiron in centaur form?" Clarisse muttered.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside. **

"Good. Hiding's good." The Stoll's nodded their approval.

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop, **_**like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. **

"Hey!" Grover protested while everyone else _tried_ to stifle their laughter.

**A large dark shape paused in front of my door, then moved on.  
A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. **

Some people wrinkled their noses at that.

**Somewhere down the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing." He murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the Winter Solstice."  
"Mine neither." Grover said. "But I could of have sworn..."  
"Get back to the dorm." Mr. Brunner told him. "Got a long day of exams tomorrow." **

"Ugh! That is _so _the worst bit!" Grover muttered.  
"Yeah well we all have to go through it." Leo reminded him.  
"Yeah but do you have to do it over and over and over and –" Grover whined.  
"Only if you're a stupid as Leo." Piper smirked while she ruffled his hair.  
"Hey!" Leo complained.

"**Don't remind me."  
The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.  
I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. **

"Good, wait till all witnesses are gone." Conner and Travis continued.  
"Yeah, we get it! There is a certain etiquette to being a Son of Hermes, or a thief or whatever! You do not need to point it out continually!" Katie sighed exasperatedly.

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.  
Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.  
"Hey." He said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"  
I didn't answer. **

"Good –" The Stoll's started but were silenced by Katie's glare.

"**You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"  
"Just... tired."  
I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and stared getting ready for bed. **

"Won't help, he'll just read your emotions!" Leo sang.  
"You're talking to a book and besides it's the _past_ as in unchangeable." Piper replied.  
"Yeah well _we're _in the past aren't we?" Leo smiled triumphantly.  
"Yeah I've been wondering about that. Won't these books change the past/future?" Annabeth contributed. Suddenly **(A/N I was so tempted to write "Suddenly a wild squirtle appears!") **another bright light left a note:

_**Dear Godly friends and ickle demigods, **_

_**I realise this may change the future but you guys will only remember this little catch up session once such events have come to pass. Which means future's you remember everything! Middle guys, you'll remember most things and Past pies you'll remember nothing! Stay godly gods! Stay cool mini gods! Apollo! **_

"Were the Olympians just called _Past Pies?_" Zeus thundered. **(Sorry I had to put that in and I don't know why I called them past pies...) **  
"Were we just called mini gods?" Leo asked chuffed.  
"We were also called _Ickle._" Frank said.  
"You're definitely not _ickle._" Leo muttered to himself.  
"Back to reading?" Travis asked. There was a murmured assent.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing. **

The demigod's nodded in understanding.

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger. **

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.  
For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.  
"Percy," He said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's... it's for the best." **

"He's gonna take that the wrong way." Annabeth sighed.

**His tone was kind but his words still embarrassed me. Even though he spoke quietly, the other kids still finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made kissing motions with her lips. **

"I'm really starting to hate that girl." Frank growled. Others nodded in agreement.

**I mumbled, "Okay sir."  
"I mean..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. **

"He does the same in centaur form." Grover smiled.

"**This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time." **

"Chiron!" Almost everyone groaned.  
"Someone teach Chiron how to do pep talks!" Hermes moaned.  
"Percy'd be perfect to do that." Thalia said.  
"Yeah, he's the best at that." Clarisse agreed. Everyone looked at her. "What!" She demanded.

**My eyes stung.  
Here was my favourite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all tear, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.  
"Right." I said trembling.  
"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh confound it all. What I'm trying to say... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be –"  
"Thanks." I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."  
"Percy –"  
But I was already gone. **

"Told ya so." Annabeth sighed.  
"No one doubted you." Thalia cracked a smile.

**On the last day of term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.  
The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. **

"Our holidays are _way_ more interesting." Thalia smirked.

**They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich**_** juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. **

"Like me." Piper murmured.

**I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.  
They asked me what I'd be doing for this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.  
What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazines subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd to school in the Autumn. **

"I think that was Merriweather **(A/N I think I spelled/spelt that wrong and what is the difference between spelled and spelt!?)**." Annabeth mused while smiling and blushing. Everyone looked at her confused.

"**Oh." One of the guys said. "That's cool."  
They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.  
The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover**

"Thanks Perce." Grover smiled.

**but, as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had **

"Stalker." Conner coughed inconspicuously.

**So there we were. Together again, heading into the city.  
During the whole bus ride,**

"Damn bus rides." Grover grumbled.

**Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. **

"Another part of the job." Grover sighed.  
"Technically it's our smell." Thalia said.  
"Which is my job, to smell you out." Grover replied.

**Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore. **

"Enter blunt as a stick Percy." Rachel sighed.  
"Sticks can be whittled to be sharp." Leo pointed out.  
"Which makes him so deadly." Nico grinned.

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?" **

"Very blunt." Jason noted.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. **

"I nearly jumped out of my hair." Grover grumbled.  
"Don't you mean fur?" Leo asked.  
"Shut up."

"**Wha – what do you mean?"  
I confessed about eavesdropping **

"Percy!" Both Conner and Travis moaned.  
"Boys!" Katie sighed exasperated.

**On him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.  
****Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**  
**"Oh … not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"So he heard everything, basically." Rachel shrugged.

**He winced. "Look, Percy … I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

"Sure, 'hallucinating' almost as bad as the magic mushroom theory." Clarisse muttered.

**"Grover-"**  
**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and …"**  
**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"True." Thalia agreed.

**His ears turned pink.**  
**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer." **  
**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**_Grover Underwood_**

**_Keeper_**

**_Half-Blood Hill_**

**_Long Island, New York_**

**_(800) 009-0009_**

"Why would you make it like that?" Athena asked Dionysus frowning.  
"Have you seen them trying to read it?!" He said smiling.

**"What's Half-"**  
**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um … summer address."**  
**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**  
**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**  
**He nodded. "Or … or if you need me."**  
**"Why would I need you?" **

"Ouch." Leo murmured.  
"He probably didn't mean it like that." Thalia said.  
"Yeah, he probably was confused. Most people aren't needed but wanted. For some it's the other way round." Annabeth agreed.  
"But for Percy, he's both." Grover smiled.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to. **

"See." All three of them said.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

"He won't think of like that." Katie said.

**I stared at him.**  
**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

"See." Katie smiled, repeating what the others had said.

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

"Oh you know, monsters that want to eat you, maim you, kill you in many gruesome way or maybe kidnap you for some other monster to-" Frank started to say until Hazel cut in, "Yeah, we get it!"

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke p****oured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

"Stupid buses." Grover said again.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else. **

"Don't go into the light!" Leo yelled suddenly.  
"Shut up Repair Boy." Piper sighed.  
"As you wish Beauty Queen."

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand. **

"Mmmm, food!" Grover sighed. The others laughed.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen. **

"WHAT!" Annabeth shouted. "Grover is those are the Fates..." Grover gulped, he was so dead.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

Annabeth gave Grover a hard look but he could see the panic in them – just because you saw the fates doesn't mean you'd die straight away...

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

"Don't be looking at him. Don't be looking at him." Annabeth chanted to herself.

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me. **

"Oh gods." Annabeth moaned. Thalia scrunched up her face. Nico breathed through his nose calmly. The others from the seven were wide eyed, _How is he alive? _Was on all of their minds. The other demigods went pale.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching. **

This is what he looked like now.

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-" **

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

"They are." Leo murmured unhelpfully.

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

Everyone groaned. _Oh Percy_ all of them were thinking.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath. **

Annabeth jumped up suddenly, her chair falling back. "Grover Underwood –"  
"Annabeth! He's fine... Well he's still alive where we come from." Piper soothed.  
Annabeth searched for a trace of charmspeak in her words but couldn't find any.  
"I can – well could when we're – you know – on Olympus – feel our empathy link."  
"Yeah." Hazel cut in. "Don – faun at Camp Jupiter – told Percy that he had an empathy link with another faun." Annabeth glanced uncertainly at the others.  
"Ok. Ok." She breathed. "Carry on Travis." All the gods looked slightly confused at what the demigods were saying.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

"Yes go" Annabeth pleaded.

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there." **

"JUST GO!" Yelled almost everyone, since tensions were running high. The gods were really getting into the story.

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. **

"How is he alive?" Jason asked, unable to stop himself. "Oh gods – sorry –"  
Annabeth held up a hand. "It's fine."  
"Percy has a knack for getting into and out of these situations." Thalia sighed.  
"We'd noticed." Hazel sighed.  
"Oh just you wait." Nico told them.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for – Sasquatch or Godzilla. **

"Godzilla." Leo said.  
"You're on." Conner told him, smiling.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life. **

"What a coinkydink." Katie said dryly. Then she noticed all the weird looks she was getting. "What!?" She demanded.

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. **

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?" **

"A lot." Frank said. Grover frowned at him. "What? You're not!"

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

"You know, just his life cord being snipped!" Leo told the book.

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like … Mrs. Dodds, are they?" **

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds.**

"Oh so much worse." Jason agreed. Then he winced. "Sorry, not helping."

**He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." **

"He says it so casually." Piper said amazed.

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older. **

Everyone looked impressed that he'd picked up on that.  
"He's... intuitive." Athena mused.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal. **

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?" **

"IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT!" Thalia and Annabeth shouted simultaneously at Grover.

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth." **

"That's a little dramatic. I mean we're all still here." Conner and Travis protested.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you ho****me from the bus station. Promise me."**

"He won't." Those who knew him well said.

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could. **

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked. **

"Not quite boy." Dionysus growled.

**No answer.**

**"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?" **

"He's on a roll." Leo smiled.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin. **

"Well that was just lovely!" Travis said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

There was an awkward moment of silence and then, "How about a break?"

**I am super sorry guys! And should I bring in a younger Percy and Annabeth? Or just a younger Percy? Or not at all? Super sorry! **


	4. Getting to know you, getting to know me

Everyone piled out of the throne room, the Romans, Leo and Piper were unsure of where to go so they followed the Greeks down the halls until they came out on top of Mount Olympus.

"Holy Zeus' beard!" Hazel gasped.

"You should see it after Annabeth redesigned it." Thalia told her.

"Wish I could. Thalia right?"

"Yeah. I'm Jason's sister." She slid a glance over to where Jason was making his way over to the dining pavilion.

"Hazel. Nico's half sister." Hazel held out her hand and Thalia shook it.

"I've known Nico for quite a long time." Thalia mentioned nonchalantly. "He lost his sister on a quest with me, Percy and some others. Please be careful, as annoying as he is, I don't want him to be hurt." Thalia kept her eyes ahead of her the whole time she spoke.

"I'll try." Hazel replied knowing that was the best she could offer. "What's it like seeing Jason after all this time?"

"I... You know for once, I don't know. I really have no idea what to do or what I should say." Thalia drew a deep breath.

"Maybe just go over there and... give a hug, show him you remember and that you still love him."

"Maybe but in the future he's already seen me right? So he will already know this. It's weird meeting someone you haven't seen in years when they already have."

"C'mon, let's go over there."

* * *

"Hey Leo." Conner said sidling up to him.

"S'up guys?" Leo grinned, these guys were hilarious!

"Look what we have!" Travis smiled innocently as he held up a photograph of Leo.

Leo grabbed the photo off him to inspect. He saw himself just after he'd arrived at camp doing the "spock" hand. He hadn't known at the time what it meant but the Stolls had.

"And you say you're not a Vulcan!" Travis laughed.

"Look at your ears too!" Conner joined in the laughter.

"Well I have the photo now so..." Leo said ripping said photo up.

"That's OK!"

"We have copies!" And away they ran while Leo groaned but at the same time he felt happy. Happy to know he had more friends than just Jason and Piper.

* * *

"So..." Frank said awkwardly.

"You're my half brother huh?" Clarisse asked.

"Yeah." This girl made him nervous.

"You don't really look like much... Can you fight?"

"Yes I can fight! Wouldn't have survived long if I couldn't." Frank defended himself.

"Prove it. Next break." Clarisse growled. "Let's see whose better, Ares or Mars."

* * *

"Hey Piper! How're things with Jason?" Katie asked.

"Everything's good. Kinda hard to worry about things like that during a war though." Piper sighed.

"Travis and I got together during our first war." Katie informed her.

"You did!?" Piper asked, glad to find someone to talk to.

"Yeah. But he asked me out right before we went into battle." Katie rolled her eyes. "Always doing things the hard way." She sighed with a loving glance towards Travis. "Anyway, he kissed me and I barely had time to react before we were attacked. We only got to talk briefly during the moments when we were being pushed back towards the Empire State Building."

Piper looked at her. It must have been worse for Katie. They were together but unsure if either would survive to see their first date. Piper felt almost guilty that she had time with Jason before they had to be in battle and she spent most of that time worrying!

"How were the two of when everything calmed down?" Piper asked hesitantly.

"We were in shock for a while. Celebrating our victory. Mourning our dead. Happy to still be alive and to have each other. War makes everything different. It was hard to act like a normal couple when we've been through so much. I'm not sure how to explain it." She said sheepishly.

"I think I get it. You mean that when he kissed you, you felt so many emotions and because you thought you might die you told each other how you felt and when the threat was removed you weren't how to act because everything moved so fast."

"Yeah that's exactly it." The two girls smiled at each other as they made their way to the dining pavilion.

* * *

"Hey Rachel." Grover said.

"Hey Grover." Rachel said looking around Olympus.

"You've been here before." Grover said noticing that she was looking around at everything they passed.

"Yeah but there was a war going on, I didn't really have time to look at everything now did I? And besides, everyone living here had cleared out and the place was lifeless. Now look at it!" And he did.

The muses sang and danced off to their right in a square that had colourful drawings all over the floor and nearby walls. Minor gods walked around in all their godly beauty and depending on what god they were, they'd give off different scents and emotions.

"Fair enough." Grover sighed as they passed an orchard with some very fresh, juicy fruit on the trees.

"I so want to paint this!" Rachel sighed holding up her thumb to get the angles.

"Right." Grover said.

* * *

"So this is Olympus." Jason mused.

"Yeah." Nico replied.

"You know Percy and Thalia quite well don't you?" Jason asked not bothering with small talk. As amazing as Olympus was, there were more important things to Jason.

"Yeah, the two of them, Annabeth and Grover are probably the only people at Camp Half-Blood who don't seem to mind being around me. At Camp Jupiter it was only Hazel and Frank."

"That's not true. I remember when you brought Hazel to camp. I don't pretend to claim that everyone likes you or is comfortable around you, what you represent scares them quite frankly. But to me, you're a kid. Not in a bad way. We're all just kids. You don't creep me out is what I'm trying to say." Jason breathed.

"Thanks. I don't get that a lot. I appreciate it." Nico tried to keep a cool exterior but on the inside he felt almost like crying. He didn't get comments like that all too often. "And for what it's worth, I plan on helping you guys as much as possible to get you to the Doors of Death and the House of Hades."

"Thanks Nico."

"You're welcome."

"Hey Nico, Jason." Hazel interrupted the two boys, saving them from an awkward silence.

"Hey Hazel." They both replied.

"Hey Nico... Hey Jason." Thalia said with false confidence. "Mind if I borrow you Jason?"

"No not at all. What's up Thals?" He said, forgetting that she hadn't met him yet as they walked away.

"Jason..." She started then just gave him a hug. "Gods I've missed you Jason!" Jason looked bewildered. "I thought you were dead!" Suddenly it dawned on him what was going on.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Hera gave me to Lupa and I was raised by some legacies at Camp Jupiter. It was... fine. I learned how to fight when I was young. Um... Yeah. It's good to see you too Thals. I missed you so much." He said awkwardly, unsure of what to tell her.

"You remember me? You were so young when you were taken."

"You were the one who raised me, mostly. Mom... I can't remember her."

"She's –"

"Yeah, you told me." They walked along for a while.

"Well this is extremely awkward." Thalia eventually said.

"Extremely." Jason agreed.

"So, what was it like growing up at Camp Jupiter?" Thalia ventured.

"It was weird. For the longest time I couldn't remember mom or that Juno had taken me. I knew the people who raised me were not my family which made me wonder what I did. If ran away or..."

"Like Annabeth." Thalia said. "Not exactly like her, she did run away when she was seven and was practically raised at Camp Half-Blood." Thalia noticed then that Annabeth the whole time had been walking the other way, looking lost in thought.

"Well yeah, when I was about seven or eight Lupa told me what Juno had done and I remembered the rest." Jason continued, pulling Thalia out of her thoughts.

* * *

Annabeth walked away from the others. She wasn't hungry. She just wanted Percy.

_Absence makes the heart grow stronger_

The phrase drifted through her head. _Screw you, She_ thought back.

What absence does to the heart is crush it, turn it into a deep black hole as – in this case – Hera dances over you destroyed soul laughing at what you've become.

Annabeth sat down on the side of a hill and ended up falling into a memory of Percy...

_Flashback_

"Hey there Wise Girl." A voice said as arms slid around Annabeth's waist.

"Why hello there," She said turning in the pair of strong, tanned arms. She looked up into the face of her boyfriend, Percy Jackson. "Seaweed Brain."

He chuckled and leaned down for a kiss.

"Nuh uh." She said putting a hand on his chest. "I'm busy."

"But Annabeth!" He moaned. "I'm bored." She glared at him. "I didn't mean it like that!" He said, panicked.

"I know." She smiled. "But I really do need to finish these plans. We've got all the time in the world Percy. The war has ended and now we get some down time."

He smiled at her. "Yeah, now we get to do whatever we want to... including kissing."

"No Percy." She laughed. "I'll be finished soon then we can go to dinner and then the campfire."

"Ok Annabeth. I'll go do some training. See you later."

"Bye Percy."

"Bye Annabeth."

_End of Flashback_

Now she wished she hadn't let him go. That she'd spent every minute she could with him.

"Feeling heartsick?" A voice asked. Annabeth turned around to see Aphrodite, Goddess of Love. "Don't bother denying it. I can feel it." She added.

"Yeah." Annabeth sighed.

"Why do you miss your boyfriend so much? I can sense you haven't seen him in a long time."

"Almost eight months." Annabeth told her. "I miss him because he's my boyfriend and I wish he were here with me."

"Oh I'm sure it's more than that." Aphrodite said. "If you just missed him, you'd be in the dining pavilion having lunch like everyone else. Your thoughts on him every so often. But no, you're here."

"What do you want me to say?" Annabeth said exasperated and frustrated. "Do I miss him? Yes. Do I wish he were here? Yes. Do I think about him almost constantly? Yes. Do I worry about if he's dead or not even though I know he's one of the most powerful people I know? Yes! Okay. Yes." Annabeth took a deep breath holding back tears.

"Yes but why?" Aphrodite pushed.

"Because... because I love him." Annabeth realised.

"Aw! This is my domain now. I just needed you to admit it."

"Your domain?" Annabeth was still reeling from her revelation.

"Goddess of Love! Hello!" Aphrodite smiled. "Now I'm guessing that the boy we're reading about is your boyfriend, is that correct?" Before Annabeth could answer a voice boomed,

"Aphrodite, you better not be filling my daughters head with your drabble."

"Of course not Athena!" Said the perky blonde goddess to the way less perky blonde goddess. "I was simply asking her why she was over here and not in the dining pavilion."

"And I said I wasn't hungry." Annabeth put in.

"So I told her that starving herself won't make her pretty, she's a natural beauty anyway."

"Hmm." Athena said obviously unimpressed.

"Well then." Aphrodite said brushing herself off as she rose. "I'll leave you two to talk. I think they have strawberry shortcake!" And with that she walked off... more like danced off. She was so graceful in her movements it was mesmerising.

"Annabeth." Athena stated.

"Hello mother." Annabeth said. She had received the coin form Minerva not too long ago and was unsure of what to say.

"I can feel the presence of the coin in your pocket." Athena said and there was something Annabeth didn't expect to see in her eyes. Worry and something else. It was remorse. Athena knew that no one had managed to do what the coin represented.

"Yeah. You were caught between the Greek and Roman you." Annabeth told her. "I – I don't know what to do with it. I'll work something out but I can't. Not yet. There's something happening at the moment and I can't – I have other responsibilities that I cannot ignore." Annabeth was expecting her mom to be angry but she wasn't. Athena didn't say a word.

"Mom?" Annabeth eventually asked.

"Go to the dining pavilion. You should eat." Was all Athena said. Annabeth got up and started to walk away. "Annabeth." Athena called out. "I – I understand. I think." She said and then left herself.

Annabeth walked into the dining pavilion a few minutes later. Everyone was half way through their meals. Annabeth saw Jason, Thalia, Nico and Hazel all chatting animatedly. Travis and Katie in their own little bubble. Rachel and Piper laughing. Conner Clarisse and Frank were laughing over a photo while Leo tried to ignore them as he spoke to Grover. As Annabeth walked in Aphrodite gave her a wink from the Olympians table at the head of the pavilion.

Annabeth got her food and sat down next to Thalia and joined in their conversation where she found out they had been sharing embarrassing stories about each other.

**Hey guys, most of you want just Percy so it will be just Percy. One person suggested that Percy should be from the fifth or fourth book. I love this idea and was wondering, when should he be from: **

**Before the books, age 5 **

**Before the book, age 8 **

**Second book **

**Third book **

**Fourth book **

**He will not be from the Fifth book or after! 'kay? ^_^**


	5. Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants

**Okay so the result is... A FIVE YEAR OLD! Dawww! **

**Sorry this took so long, I wanted to even out the results and I didn't expect to get as much homework as I did! Seriously, 100 pages of exam style maths questions covering the whole year when I've only just moved up to higher instead of foundation? Ugh! Anywho... **

With full stomachs everyone made their way back to the throne room.

"Ugh!" Conner groaned. "I'm so full!"

"I'm fuller." Travis moaned. "I think I'm gonna burst."

Katie sighed. She had warned them this would happen.

"Katie did tell you." Piper smiled.

"Shut up Beauty Queen." Leo Groaned, he along with Travis and Conner had over eaten.

"Make me Repair Boy!" She said back.

"Cool it guys." Jason interrupted.

"Whatever you say Sparky." Piper smiled affectionately.

"Yes sir, Captain Airhead, sir!" Leo mock saluted. Everyone rolled their eyes.

"What is it with the nicknames?" Frank asked. "Leo calls Piper Beauty Queen and Jason Captain Airhead. Piper calls Jason Sparky and Leo Repair Boy. Travis and Conner call Leo Spock. Percy calls Annabeth Wise Girl. Annabeth calls Percy Seaweed Brain. Clarisse calls Percy Prissy. Thalia calls Percy Kelp head and he calls her Pinecone Face in return. Thalia also calls Nico Death Breath –"

"How do you know that Percy and I call each other? How do you know what Clarisse, Thalia and Nico call each other?" Annabeth cut in.

"We know Percy in our time and he talks about you guys all the time." Frank replied uncertainly.

"So Percy remembers." Annabeth breathed. Thalia, Grover, Rachel, Katie, Clarisse, Conner and Travis all had the same expression as Annabeth. Hopeful.

"What do I remember?" A small voice asked from one of the sofas.

Everyone turned with expressions of hope, shock, need and want. The gods popped onto their thrones and could see the person this voice came from. The demigods, Grover and Rachel crept forward.

"Percy?" Annabeth asked tentatively.

"Yeah?" Answered a small boy with unruly black hair and shocking sea green eyes. He looked around five years old.

As everyone saw and recognised who it was the boy looked from person to person, trying to recognise someone back.

"Who are you?" He asked in a slightly more scared voice.

The demigods mostly looked towards Annabeth but she seemed in shock and was slowly backing away from him. The people who had known him the longest were frozen too.

"Uh... Hey there, I'm Hazel." Said girl smiled warmly.

"I'm Percy." He smiled and stuck his hand out. She shook it and sat next to him.

"We're reading some books..." Hazel began as she explained what was happening.

"This is from the future?" He asked in an awed tone.

"Yes." Hazel replied beaming at him. After all he was incredibly cute.

"Wow." He breathed under his breath. This made Hazel and Piper giggle a bit, even Jason, Frank and Leo couldn't hold back a smile at how adorable he was. The others were still in shock but unable to tear their gaze from him.

"I'll read." Artemis said gruffly. She was trying to hide how adorable she found the small boy.

**Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants **

"Oh saucy Grover!" Leo laughed.

"Say what?"

"Grover that's rather indecent." Thalia smiled.

"Guys, I'm a satyr, it doesn't matter." Grover sighed but everyone was still stifling giggles.

"Children present!" Piper said smacking Leo upside the head**. **

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Percy." They all sighed.

"That's not very nice." Demeter yawned. "If he worked in the fields, behind a plow, he'd be a much nicer boy! It's great character building." Hades groaned. He'd heard so much of this.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

"No wonder he ditched you Grover!" Katie said.

"That would be a bit creepy." Hazel admitted.

"And it doesn't _always_ happen." Piper said pointedly.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.

"Before you two idiots get any ideas, he moved house." Annabeth said to Travis and Conner who had been sharing a look.

She had turned away from the five year old Percy and refused to look at him even when he asked, "Me and mommy moved? Is Gabe there?" He whispered the last bit.

"Yes you moved." Annabeth said curtly.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"She's the best person ever!" Little P shouted clapping happily. This made everyone else laugh.

"The very best." Annabeth said smiling too.

"You know mommy?" He asked her. He was sure the tall blonde girl didn't like him because when she had looked at him she looked angry... or hurt.

"Yes I know your mommy very well." Even though it hurt to look at Percy Annabeth still smiled at him. Having him there but not knowing who she was felt like a punch in the gut. Like a foreshadowing. Even though Frank had said Percy remembered... there was still that knot of worry within her.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

_Just like Percy... _Everyone but the gods thought.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care****of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"That's terrible." Hazel whispered.

"No diploma? That poor woman!" Athena worried.

"She deserves better." Piper agreed.

Those who already knew about this from Percy just nodded. They knew Sally was happy now... Well, she was before Percy disappeared.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

Everyone assumed the father was a god otherwise this whole story would be pointless for them to read.

"Debatable..." Artemis muttered. After all, now she would have to care for and raise a child singlehandedly. Plus once the child had grown she would have to deal with the countless monsters that would come after it and always be worrying if he would die. Plus if she had no money, family or diploma things would be hard in raising the boy.

Poseidon however smiled at this, blushing slightly.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea. **

"Ooh, very clever. It's a lie... but not a lie!" Hermes smiled.

"That doesn't make sense Hermes... But I get what you mean." Athena sighed**. **

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Understatement of the century." Thalia laughed.

"What does 'understatement' mean?" Little P asked.

"It means –" Annabeth started.

"It doesn't matter." Thalia cut in.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk.****When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like mouldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"I'm not sorry." Little P grumbled. Then his eyes went wide as he looked around as if expecting something horrible.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along … well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet. **

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home." **

"That's a lovely welcome!" Katie said sarcastically.

"That's Gabe." Little P replied. Everyone frowned at this.

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?" **

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Clarisse grumbled as everyone seethed in annoyance. She received a few weird looks because of this comment. "What? I can't be the only one who thinks this guy is a gigantic –"

"Children present!" Piper cut in.

"But she's got a point." Jason said.

"I never said she didn't, I just said that there are children present." Piper replied to which Jason rolled his eyes lovingly.

Hazel couldn't help but be reminded of her mother when she was still Queen Marie and greedy.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months? **

"Exactly!" The Stolls cried indignantly.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"As much as I try to believe that everyone can be beautiful in their own way... This 'man' has just... He's just..." But Aphrodite couldn't finish as the emotions took over.

"There there." Ares said quietly to her.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out. **

**Silence. **

Little P shook and tried to hide. Just seeing this set everyone off.

"HE WOULD DO WHAT?!" Thalia cried.

"THAT DISGUSTING – NO VILE – NO HEINOUS MAN!" Rachel hissed.

"That thing is not a man. Not even by the loosest meaning of the word." Annabeth said, deathly calm.

Jason was accidentally making the air currents in the room go haywire as he tried to stop himself from hitting something. Leo was on fire as anger blazed in his mind. Hazel was drawing all types of metals toward her as she tried to hold in her negative emotions. Nico was making shadows creep around the room, making everything colder. Thalia was making lightening crash around them as her feelings ripped out of her. Katie was unknowingly making the plants in the room go haywire, Grover had a similar effect. Those without such noticeable powers were letting out harsh curses.

"Stop." Little P whispered. He was not heard.

"Stop!" He tried a little louder. No one took any notice.

"STOP IT!" He screamed. A wave from the fountain rose up a crashed around the room, dousing everyone. This got them to be quiet as they all turned toward Percy.

He had his eyed squeezed shut and fists clenched. Winds circled around him as did water creating a hurricane.

Uncertainly Annabeth came over to him. She could deal with older Percy but young five year old Percy?

"Percy?" No answer. "Percy, did... did Gabe ever... Hurt you?" Percy looked up into her eyes. Feeling unable to answer he turned his head and then she saw the bruise on his collar bone.

Her gaze hardened. "Percy..."

"Gabe is mean... Gabe..." Percy just balled his hand into a fist and hit the couch.

"Let me see." She said gently as she pulled his top over his head. There she saw more than bruises. She saw cuts and scars... Words sliced into the flesh of his back.

"Apollo." She said in a way that made everyone shiver in fear. Said god came off of his throne from where the other Olympians were sitting in shock and picked up Little P.

"C'mon Percy. Let's go get you cleaned up and then you can have a lollipop." He said in that doctor voice as he placed Percy on his hip and walked out of the throne room. "We won't be long, carry on with the book."

The door boomed closed behind him and the room was left in silence.

Artemis picked up the book and coughed to clear her throat. She was proud of her brother for being so gentile and kind.

**"I**** don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow. **

**Growls of anger came from the demigods. **

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else. **

"Amen to that." Travis – a normally laid back guy – said angrily.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least he's semi decent." Rachel tried.

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Never mind." Piper scrunched her nose and raised a brow with disgust.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"We all do." Said Conner.

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer. **

"I want to hurt that thing!" Hazel hissed which was very aggressive, especially for her.

"As do I!" Frank growled putting an arm around her.

"I want to do so much worse." Clarisse said darkly. The others nodded or hissed their agreement.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

"All hail the king of sarcasm." Nico said. That was one of the things he missed about Percy. Everyone – though still truly mad with anger – smiled slightly.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"How can it be that bad?" Katie asked, disgusted.

"Do you really want to find out?" Travis replied.

"I would if it meant Percy didn't have to go through that." She said quietly. Everyone agreed.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

"Enter the best person in the world." Nico said.

"Or second best next to Percy." Thalia said and then continued. "Then again she raised him like that."

"Joint first?" Nico suggested. "Behind every great hero is –"

"Don't you dare ruin another great quote!" Thalia said thinking about what Percy had told her.

Percy had told her that Nico had said "With great responsibility comes a great need to nap." And since then he'd been ruining quotes. Well, she thought he was ruining them but Percy found it hilarious.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"The most patient of us all." Nico said wisely. Everyone else rolled their eyes at this.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"I wish we had a mom like that." Connor said. Travis nodded.

"I just wish I still had my mom." Leo whispered but Frank heard.

"Me too." He whispered to him. Leo looked up at him and smiled. Maybe they had some things in common.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

"He better be." Annabeth murmured.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

So did everyone in the room.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"Or a God." Apollo said coming into the room holding Percy's hand. In Percy's other hand was ten different flavoured lollipops that he'd managed to wrangle out of Apollo. He went to sit between Hazel and Annabeth and gave them both one lollipop.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum …**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"Just tell her!" Katie sighed exasperated.

"But after a year of being treated like her was crazy he would be worried that he is. Besides, how weird would it be to say "Hey mom, my teacher turned into a flying bat thing. Then my other teacher gave me a pen that turned into a sword and I killed the bat thing with it. Oh and then for the rest of the year everyone acted like the bat teacher never existed!" Clarisse defended Percy.

"But Sally would have believed him!" Nico said.

"But he didn't know that." Annabeth agreed with Clarisse. She hadn't talked about Percy this much since before he... left. She thought about him constantly but she didn't talk about him all too much.

"Flying bat thing? Don't all bats fly?" Leo mused.

"Shut up." Clarisse growled at him and he did.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"It wouldn't to her; she can see through the mist." Thalia sighed.

"But he didn't –"

"I know he didn't know!" Thalia snapped.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

Everyone who knew what that meant smiled widely. Little P let out an excited squeal.

**"Three nights-same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"That's because he gambled it all away!" Conner said.

"Don't you two play poker?" Jason asked.

"Yeah but we play with chores, not money!" Travis answered. Both Stolls were shaking their heads in disproval.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him,**

"Do it!" Everyone yelled. They had enough of smelly Gabe.

"Don't stop at hitting him!"

Little P looked away and sighed. He didn't want to be violent... but from the sound of things...

**but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"If he doesn't..." The threat was left unsaid but everyone was sure it would not be pleasant.

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Bribery, oh sweet bribery." Connor, Travis, and Hermes with dreamy look on their faces.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip … it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"WHAT?!" Aphrodite screamed. "YOU CAN'T PUT A BUDGET ON CLOTHES!"

"You can when you're not a goddess with infinite funds." Leo whispered to himself. Living on the streets had meant he didn't have the luxury that was clean clothing. Or new clothing for that matter.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip … And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"Interrupt! He funded it." Grover said indignantly.

"Ain't that the truth." Conner agreed.

"'Ain't' isn't a word." Annabeth muttered.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought.**

Everyone grinned at the idea. Even the males who would have normally been against such a thing.

**And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Percy smiled at the idea... Maybe unnecessary violence was bad but if there's a good reason...

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"That's what we want to know" muttered Athena.

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"It's not the size of the brain that determines –" Athena started.

"We know!" Everyone chorused.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

"Idiot" Thalia said.

"Most men are idiots." Artemis said.

"Not necessarily" Thalia whispered. In fact most of the males she knew where pretty decent. Not that she'd ever break her vow.

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about… whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

Everyone shivered.

"Stupid possessing spirits..." Leo muttered as the feeling was similar.

**But then her smil****e returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

"Doesn't deserve it." Frank said. Hazel squeezed his hand in agreement as everyone else nodded theirs.

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. **

"Oh yeah, let the twelve year old boy carry all the bags!" Rachel frowned.

**He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.**

Noises of disgust was heard around the hall.

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Like He'd be the one driving, he's twelve!" Annabeth yelled.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

Everyone grinned as Annabeth blushed.

"You think like Percy" Nico said. Annabeth just rolled her eyes. "Another one bites the dust."

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

Most rolled their eyes in disgust.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a canon.**

There was a shocked silence.

"Holy..." Grover said.

"He's powerful." Athena said.

"Yes he is" Annabeth said with a small smile.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out. **

"Nope that was not the wind." Frank said shaking his head.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets**

"I thought you had been there before." Katie said turning to Annabeth.

"I have... I just make him clean it first."

"Wait, Why did you go there Annabeth? Asked Athena.

"I'm not the only one. When I went there I went with Thalia and Nico." Annabeth said.

"So you went with two males?" Artemis asked.

"Thalia was there too!" Annabeth was annoyed they'd even gotten into this. Artemis was still frowning along with Athena but they stayed quiet.

**, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"It's like she's connected to the sea" murmured Katie.

"That's probably what drew Poseidon to her." Travis whispered to her. She looked at him surprised. Travis just smiled and shrugged.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"I love blue food!" Squealed Percy.

"What's with the blue food?" Zeus asked "That's my color."

"It's a long –" Annabeth began sighing.

"Funny –" Nico cut in.

"Story." Thalia finished.

"I think it shows how rebelliousness runs in the family." Hazel smiled having been told the story.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"Here we go." Annabeth sighed. It wasn't actually a long story but just hearing it... Well...

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"He gets it from Sally too?" Thalia said.

"Yes, apparently." Jason said.

"Though it's more than just a streak." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk-my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

Athena looked around the room at the gods eyes. She didn't think to look at any of the Big Three, they had a deal after all.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"You're not the only one." Clarisse said.

"Even the school thing?" Frank asked.

"No... I was a year rounder."

"Was?" Frank caught the word.

"Yeah. Was." She said effectively cutting off the conversation.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean … when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But… he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

No one noticed but Poseidon shook his head. No one noticed except Little Percy.

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember … something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me …**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

Everyone growled.

"If I ever meet that pig..." Piper growled.

"Don't worry, he's long gone." Annabeth smiled grimly. Percy had told her that the Medusa package had been sent back to him. He'd told her that Gabe was no good and had been... taken care of. She'd never realised exactly what he'd meant by no good.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think … I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"No Percy!" Groaned mostly everyone.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"At least he regrets it." Said Artemis.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"That's not necessarily a bad thing." said Nico.

"I mean Percy has to be the strangest of them all." Thalia agreed.

"But he embraces his weirdness. It's what kept us all alive." Annabeth said reminiscing.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

"Safe from what?"

"Oh just –" Nico began.

"Monsters, –" Grover continued.

"Gods, –" Conner added.

"Titans –" Travis mentioned.

"And giants." Leo finished casually.

The boys all grinned at each other as everyone else just rolled their eyes.

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"Why would a Cyclops be following him?" Hazel asked.

"Not all Cyclops are good." Annabeth said wrinkling her nose at the memory.

"Ain't that the truth!" Leo said thinking of Ma Gasket.

"Ain't doesn't exist! I think you mean 'Isn't'" Annabeth exclaimed.

"Wasn't there a Cyclops skeleton hanging across that entrance to the Labyrinth when you came ot get me?" Rachel asked. Annabeth nodded.

"The Labyrinth?" Jason asked shocked.

"Long story. It'll probably be in one of the books." Annabeth replied not really wanting to get into it.

Nico frowned. He really didn't want to relieve those memories... Would this mean he'll hear about what happened to Bianca exactly?

**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Just like Hercules." Zeus mentioned.

"Hercules is a douche." Artemis, Piper and Jason all said just as Thalia, Annabeth and Nico said, "He's nothing like Hercules!"

Artemis because of Zoe. Piper and Jason from personal experience. Thalia because of what Percy had said about not being Hercules and Zoe admitting that not all men are bad. Nico and Annabeth because of what Percy had told them Hercules had actually done.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move. **

"A tradition that never ends." Annabeth said wryly.

"Aw man!" Little P moaned.

"What about Goode?" Katie asked.

"Well he got kidnapped didn't he?" Annabeth whispered so quietly so that only the demigod heard.

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that. **

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just… I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"Imagine Camp Half-Blood as a school..." Travis mused.

"Would mortals go there?" Conner asked. Everyone face palmed.

_We're finally gonna find out Camp Half-Blood is like. _Frank and Hazel thought as Jason, Piper and Leo thought, _We're finally gonna find out what Camp Half-Blood was like before Percy left. _

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad – who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before? **

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp …"**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"I hate his dreams." Said Annabeth.

"Are they really that bad?" Asked Piper asked Annabeth.

"Percy's dreams are highly vivid and very prophetic." Annabeth informed.

"I hate my dreams too." Little P whispered.

"Why do you hate your dreams Percy?" Annabeth asked.

"Scary." He whispered even quieter.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

Everyone looked at Zeus and Poseidon. Both gods turned their heads and whispered nonchalantly.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

Zeus couldn't help but smirk... As did Thalia. Then she thought about it and frowned.

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

"Well..." Conner said.

"That was pretty cool." Travis finished. After receiving weird looks he explained. "She just woke up and already knew what was happening. It usually takes me forever to even think when I wake up."

"Yeah but you're an idiot." Katie said affectionately. He grinned back.

"I'm _your _idiot though." He said cheesily.

Everyone rolled their eyes at this except Annabeth. She felt conflicted while watching them. It reminded her of Percy which both made he happy and sad. She wasn't sure if she should warn them that love only made things worse or is she should tell them to feel blessed to have each other.

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't… he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"What is he then?" Apollo asked.

"Think about the title" Athena said.

"Oh..." But he was still frowning. Grover sighed from the floor... where he wasn't wearing any pants. "Oh!" Apollo said again after looking at the Grover in front of him.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?" **

"When does he ever –" The insult was stopped by Annabeth's death glare which was scarier that Thalia's but not as scary as Percy's.

**My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

"Uh... What does that mean?" Hazel asked timidly. The Greeks having forgotten that Hazel and Frank were Roman had just carried on a usual.

"Oh Zeus and all the gods." Little P said casually.

"Look at you smarty pants." Annabeth laughed and tickled him.

Percy beamed, no ever called him smart except his mother.

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be … where his legs should be …**

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning. **

"Sally is scary when she's angry." Nico murmured.

"She's even scarier when she's scared." Annabeth added.

"How can someone be scary when they themselves are scared?" Rachel asked.

"Well... She never gets scared for herself. She's scared about Percy and then she goes all 'mama bear'." Thalia explained.

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves. **

"I like my hooves." Grover said admiringly.

"What?" Rachel asked.

"I like my hooves. I know so many satyrs who thing hooves are gross and dislike their but I rather like mine."

"This sounds like when people have a disliking toward feet except with hooves instead." Piper whispered to Leo and Jason. Both boys bit back their laughter at this.

"Next chapter then!"

* * *

**Ugh I had to go through that bloody chapter like five times just to get every bold bit that wasn't supposed to be bold! **

**Also I just thought I'd tell you that I'm planning to do the whole series and in each book will be a different Percy. E.g this book is 5 year old Percy. Second book will be book 3 Percy. Etc etc. I might change which Percy goes where but for now... yeah. I know lots of you will be thinking "Yeah if you actually updated!" Well guess what, I'm not perfect and have a life. That's a lie, I have homework, I have school, I have books and I have you. i'm gonna shut up now before I write you my life story. **

**See ya! **

**- Sly. **


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